Infant Feeding

Introduction

The paper presents a discussion about various formula foods for infants available in the market. It discusses the roles played by media in promoting these products. Added to this the discussion concentrates over the importance of breastfeeding as against all these media influenced propaganda.

Infant Feeding

Breastfeeding is the best food that an infant should be given. There should not be any secondary or additional choice against this recommendation (USPSTF, 2003). However under some circumstances some mother could not manage to provide their child with their breast milk. These can be some of the exceptional cases, where infant feeding makes a shift from breast feeding to bottle feeding. Apart from some of the major hindrances there is no point in opting for something other than breast feeding (Pender, Murdaugh and Parsons, 2002). As a matter of fact many people do not understand the importance of breast feeding and starts opting for formula food for their infants. These people are much influenced by bottle-feeding dolls that are being marketed to children through media. The commercials and propagandas displayed through movies, television programs, magazines and similar sources, influence these parents and as such they opt for formula baby food for their infants instead of breast milk.

Formula food is actually manufactured in order to support adequate growth too all the infants who are under the age of six months. These are considered to be the sole source of nutrition. But as a matter of fact they are not as nutritious as breast milk. It has been very much declared in media commercials that by composition of infant formula have been roughly based on mother's milk that is approximately under one month postpartum. These kinds of declarations add the aspiration to use these formula foods for the infants. As a matter of fact though they add nutrition to the bay and help him in gaining weight, yet cannot be substituted with mother’s milk. It is always good if the mother doesn’t look into these commercials and provides the infant with her milk. In case of full time working women, the addition of formula foods with breast milk can be preferred. But to make the baby live of formula food due to the influence of the commercials is really never encouraged.

The commercials for formula food are generally designed with various convincing statements and are influential for all those people who do not understand the importance of breast feeding. It is in the United States, that there is a huge market for infant formula. They are in fact heavily marketed. There are even distributed to mothers and doctors all free for taking over the market. These are done in violation to the governmental principles in the code. The regulations led by American Academy of Pediatrics encouragement of formula food to public is against social and ethical norms.

Conclusion

It can be well authenticated that people are still not aware of the importance of breast feeding and thus flow with the daily commercials and get their infants all kinds of formula foods. The formula foods are having nutritional value but are also artificial food for the child. They cannot substitute breast feeding. Formula foods are not having half of the nutrition of breast milk and thus needs to be avoided. It is the responsibility of the media to promote breast feeding, rather than less nutritional formula food. These foods can never be a better option for a child in the present and for his future. Marketing of formula food thus should not be encouraged as the child does not get all the ingredients that it wants for a better future.